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ME475 Helpful tips for project
This page will help you in actually finishing the injection mold project for ME475. So here is brief background for the injection mold project. * You have the whole semester to finish *You can choose any design that you wish *You'll have access to the Cougshop *Total of two people per project Design Upon deciding a design to begin as your potential project, it is important to realize what is possible to create. By this I mean creating a design that is not too complicated. The project will be much easier and less time consuming by choosing a simple design. So in other words, simple is better. During the course you will learn about types design features that work and design features that will complicate the process. It is crucial to take these constraints into consideration when it comes down to the project. Design considerations to take into account are listed below: * No undercuts in your design * Avoid having straight lines as this makes removing the product from the mold difficult and potentially break your part. If you decide to design a product with straight lines consider adding draft angles in your design for easy removal. * Add a gate to your runner for easy removal of the runner when the product is finished * Know the tools are your disposal for the CNC machines. Do not create a design that will be using a tool smaller than 1/32 or 1/16 of an inch because that is all they have in the Cougshop * Once you generate a toolpath and select the tools in Mastercam, have Kurt revise it!! There were occasions where students broke the tools and damaged their soft jaw model because they did not revise their toolpath with Kurt. This will not only ruin your project, but also create downtime for all other students for the CNC machine as Kurt needs to replace the broken tool. Time One major issue that will hinder your project and moving forward is time. Ensure that you try your best to finish early because as the semester begins to come to a close, there will be other classes using the CNC machines in the Cougshop and they will have priority. Apart from regular classes using the Cougshop, there are also senior projects that will be using the Cougshop extensively, and extracurricular clubs as well. If the Cougshop is free and open to work on your project it is important to know that total operation time can vary from 2 hours up to 10 hours depending on the complexity of your design. Such operation times will push you back even further because of the wait time. Just remember there will be other students trying to finish their project at the end of the semester and majority of the students will fail to produce a final product. Our design project My partner and I decided to go with a spinning as can be seen by the figure. Our design includes a gate that makes removal easier and avoids damaging the top section of the spinning top. We managed to be few of the groups that finished early and actually producing a final product. Our design has no undercuts so removal of the product from the mold was easy, it also does not have straight lines and thus eliminating draft angles on our design. The spinning top works as it should with no major issues. However, we do not have a perfect product. There are a few issues we ran into and something you can learn from our issues. The two images below illustrate the imperfections of our final design. The clear spinning top has air bubbles which will alter the final volume of the product and potentially causing a lopsided spinning top. The second imperfection of our design was the soft jaw itself. Since we did not anticipate the lengths of the tools in the Cougshop, the tools could not reach certain parts when the CNC machine was running. So we end up getting dimples on our final products. Overall the spinning top work as they should, some better than others. Conclusion Overall the project is really fun and interesting because it is a design that you will decide to do. But again, don't make the design to complicated or else you might not end up with anything to show for it. Good luck and GO COUGS!